Just build something already, frustrated citizens are saying. But are the mayoral contenders listening?

On the city region’s most critical and pressing file — transportation — we are trapped on a merry-go-round that’s left us dizzy. “Stop, please, let us off, just build something,” is what I hear from frustrated citizens.

They do not want Tim Hudak to ride into Toronto with yet another plan to build an east-west subway that is maybe Eglinton Crosstown, maybe relief line, maybe Bloor-Danforth, maybe all three.

They resented Transportation Minister Glen Murray for trying to impose a Scarborough subway plan that was contrary to the subway plan the TTC proposed.

They grabbed their heads and screamed when city council said no to a subway along Eglinton, up to the Scarborough Town Centre; opted yes for LRT technology instead; and within the year changed course to LRT on Eglinton, but subway up to the town centre along a different route, up McCowan.

I lost faith in the designated planners, the provincially mandated Metrolinx, the moment Metrolinx fell into bed with Murray, only to eat crow when the TTC resolutely and credibly showed Murray’s made-at-Queen’s-Park plan wouldn’t fly.

Who didn’t rock his or her head in amazement when TTC chair Karen Stintz did an about-face from LRT to subway to replace the Scarborough RT?

But it is the height of lunacy to now advocate that city council revisit this issue in the new term and rekindle all the animosities and pent-up anger in the section of our city with the lowest self-esteem.

A subway they are building to Scarborough — a subway it should be. Let it be, people. That includes candidates Olivia Chow and David Soknacki, people I admire greatly.

Whose idea is it to start that fight again? The answer must lie in some focus group or polling or strategic positioning to create a wedge issue or build a profile.

I understand that Soknacki, unknown and first out the block, needed a high-prolife issue on which to make a splash and attract attention. His campaign position to reverse council decision and replace the subway with an LRT fits the bill. He probably believes this is the right technology for this route. Some days I share the view.

But what would possess the Chow campaign to embrace this?

To every argument in support of Chow’s position there is a counter argument. Either technology would work. Both have drawbacks. And there are transit experts who say neither is the ideal solution.

There is enough evidence to suggest we might be spending billions of dollars on projects that might not deliver what we expect. We’ll build them and traffic won’t improve significantly because they don’t complete a grid, are in the wrong place, don’t use the right technology and other factors.

But none of our political leaders or transit builders has been able to state this in clear terms based on research and evidence.

What we have, instead, is a panoply of project ideas foisted on us by political machines looking to buy votes with our money.

And once we elect a mayor or a party we plunge ourselves into another round of second-guessing and battles over whose vision will endure.

If a mayoral candidate were to say, “Toronto’s entire transit plan is based on faulty assumptions (list them). I will ask council and the province to suspend work for one year on any new projects until we get definitive studies based on these parameters (list them).

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